4K restoration on Star Wars

Intresting

....but I still think the files that were given to Lowry, the files that LFL had restored & scanned themselves in 95 at the highest resolution at that time....2K, the ones with the 97 SE alterations......thats why imperfections that have been evident since 97,...eg Humdinger glitch are still even on the BD's

It is possible that Lowry upscaled the film to 4K

.....but

I would love this to mean that the company has been working on an entirely NEW scan

that staffers credits:

(5-8/2010, 9/2012-12/2012, 5-6/2013)Reliance Media Works/ Lowry Digital:
Restoration, Mapping, Dirt Picking : Little Mermaid - Disney Blu-Ray Release
Restoration, Mapping, Dirt Picking : Star Wars 4K Blu-Ray Release
Restoration, Mapping, Dustbusting/Dirt Picking : Pinocchio
Restoration, Mapping, Dustbusting/Dirt Picking : Snow White

If the 2012 is related to Star Wars, that was after the BD's release

....sounds pretty positive

J

If SE, they ain't getting ANY of my money!

If the original unaltered, I will be there to get it DAY 1!

Interesting.

danny_boy said:

Was browsing the web-site of what was formerly Lowry Digital.

It has been acquired by several companies over the years.

Anyways....RelianceMediaWorks is the company that owns Lowry now.

They claim they have done a 4K restoration on the Star wars trilogy.

http://www.rmwusa.com/

Goto Projects

Then click on Restoration.

When was the last time you checked the site? Has it always said 4k or is this a recent development?

Not that it would make any sense to call the old project 4k, as I'm pretty sure it wasn't even scanned in at anything higher than 2k and the workflow was 1920:1080. Unless whoever put this website together has no idea what they're talking about, which is possible but unlikely. It even specifies 16-bit. What bit depth (or whatever it's called) was the 2004 job done at?

So yeah, Occam's Razor and all that, but it's a little weird if this is how we're finding out about it.

If it's true, I can't say I'm surprised. Disney was bound to do a new 4k scan of the SE sooner rather than later. Especially because the time to do a grand theatrical re-release of the OT-SE in 3D is in the next year-and-a-half leading up to Episode 7, not afterwards, and I actually would've been more shocked if they were still working off that ancient transfer from 2004.

That theater in Atlanta was making a big to-do about unveiling a new DCP on Friday, I suppose this could be it. Maybe they started on this with the intention that it would be used as the basis for the 3D release that would have come out last year if they had continued with those. The 2010-12 timeline on that resume' lines up with that whole pointless clown show.

It would be impressive if they've been working on it that long and managed to keep it a secret the entire time. On the other hand, the 2008 re-scans of the Indy trilogy were done rather quietly as well, so maybe Disney is taking a similar approach here.

AntcuFaalb said:

emanswfan said:

If SE, they ain't getting ANY of my money!

If the original unaltered, I will be there to get it DAY 1!

Same here. I hope someone replies to my e-mails.

Don't expect an answer before an official announcement.

I'm still hoping Disney is going to feed the OOT to the Ep VII hype machine, and the way they've been handling Star Wars makes it a fairly likely scenario. This December, maybe? Fingers crossed, but no real expectations.

And if it's not an OOT restoration they can go suck on a lightsaber™, regardless of whether it's good or not this time around.

SilverWook said:

Does that site load miserably slow for anyone else?

It's slow, but not atypically slow for that kind of site.

m_s0 said:

I'm still hoping Disney is going to feed the OOT to the Ep VII hype machine, and the way they've been handling Star Wars makes it a fairly likely scenario. This December, maybe? Fingers crossed, but no real expectations.

 If there was ever a time to release the OOT, it would be next year leading up to Episode 7 as you will have Ford, Fisher and Hamill doing a zillion interviews about the new movie.  Perfect Tie-In for the fans.

CO said:

m_s0 said:

I'm still hoping Disney is going to feed the OOT to the Ep VII hype machine, and the way they've been handling Star Wars makes it a fairly likely scenario. This December, maybe? Fingers crossed, but no real expectations.

 If there was ever a time to release the OOT, it would be next year leading up to Episode 7 as you will have Ford, Fisher and Hamill doing a zillion interviews about the new movie.  Perfect Tie-In for the fans.

I'm thinking maybe this Christmas or May next year, if it even happens, but I can't see them releasing it any closer Ep VII than that. Whatever we might think about the OOT, the average Joe won't care or understand what this is all about, hence why I doubt they'd make it a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Getting it out to maintain a consistent level of buzz and to get the hardcore nerds on board with the new Star Wars Overlords - sure. Making it a significant part of the marketing campaign (classic Star Wars is back, with a follow up soon etc.) - nope.

There's a chance I'm just too jaded to see it. It would be cool if they did make a big deal out of it, not only because of validation and all that stuff.

Cobra Kai said:

That staffer's resume indicates that she worked on it starting in september of 2012.  If that's the case, then I bet this was just a new SE master for the 3d releases that were eventually cancelled.

That's a good point. I completely forgot about the 3D re-releases.

Fang Zei said:

danny_boy said:

Was browsing the web-site of what was formerly Lowry Digital.

It has been acquired by several companies over the years.

Anyways....RelianceMediaWorks is the company that owns Lowry now.

They claim they have done a 4K restoration on the Star wars trilogy.

http://www.rmwusa.com/

Goto Projects

Then click on Restoration.

When was the last time you checked the site? Has it always said 4k or is this a recent development?

Not that it would make any sense to call the old project 4k, as I'm pretty sure it wasn't even scanned in at anything higher than 2k and the workflow was 1920:1080. Unless whoever put this website together has no idea what they're talking about, which is possible but unlikely. It even specifies 16-bit. What bit depth (or whatever it's called) was the 2004 job done at?

So yeah, Occam's Razor and all that, but it's a little weird if this is how we're finding out about it.

If it's true, I can't say I'm surprised. Disney was bound to do a new 4k scan of the SE sooner rather than later. Especially because the time to do a grand theatrical re-release of the OT-SE in 3D is in the next year-and-a-half leading up to Episode 7, not afterwards, and I actually would've been more shocked if they were still working off that ancient transfer from 2004.

The 2004 transfer was a 8-bit RGB scan of the original negative done by Lucasfilm themselves.

On http://www.rmwusa.com/#start there is even a HD video called "Image Processing" which showcases clips from movies they worked on and to me it looks like that the Star Wars scenes are not taken from the 2004 Master.

Eh, those lightsaber blades look 2004 to me.

AntcuFaalb said:

ForceFreak said:

The 2004 transfer was a 8-bit RGB scan of the original negative done by Lucasfilm themselves.

On http://www.rmwusa.com/#start there is even a HD video called "Image Processing" which showcases clips from movies they worked on and to me it looks like that the Star Wars scenes are not taken from the 2004 Master.

It looks like a new scan to me.

I didn't know it was done at 8-bit. Yuck! That's barely OK for LDs.

This one was done at 4K/16-bit.

I'm sorry, i just checked the interview with John Lowry from 2004 about the DVD Release and it wasnt a 8-bit scan it was in fact a 10-bit scan. My mistake.

http://www.starwars-union.de/sw/ot_dvdspecial/seite/restaurierung/